40 Sacks of silver: Treasure discovery in St Petersburg palace

St Petersburg. Construction workers doing restoration work discovered the in 1917 hidden treasure of the Naryshkin family: they found in a secret chamber thousands of pieces of cutlery and crockery.

The former home of the Naryshkin family is located in Tchaikovskaya Street, number 29. The nobility had left the city in the revolution year of 1917.

Until now, the St Petersburg cultural guardians assumed that all valuable items had been moved out of the house 1920 had been handed over to the Hermitage and the Russian Museum.

However, this was not the case: During restoration work, workers came across a room that was not listed on any plans and maps and of a size about six square meters by two meters in height. This chamber held a real surprise: It held around 49 sacks of gems.

A treasure for a banquet hall

According to fontanka.ru, experts of the town historical authority and criminologists are currently recovering the treasure and sorting it. A 15 spare foot room is already filled with the valuables. It will take days to just log all the items.

Some of the dishes bear the family crest of the Naryshkins, they say. Also the set is apparently complete – everything from tea spoons to soup spoons and numerous Samovars. It is possible that the city, full of treasures has not seen such an enormous table set, according to the experts.

The lucky finder will receive a quarter of the value

Investigators have to clarify who can be considered as the finder of the treasure that was hidden 95 years ago – which will not necessarily be easy on a building site. According to Russian law, the finder of a treasure may keep 50 percent of the value. The other half belongs to the owner of the land or building – in this case the city.

However, should the fund be declared a cultural heritage which falls to the state treasurer who must then compensate the landowner and the finder with 25 percent each.

Until a finder’s reward will be paid out extensive expert valuation of the treasure has to be completed. Russian “treasure hunters” complain that they as honest finders have to wait a very long time for compensation, as the public budgets have not set aside any money for such findings.

Old newspapers assist with dating the treasure

The Naryshkins had been hiding the family silver over a longer period, throughout the revolutionary year of 1917: newspapers were used as wrapping paper and are dated from February to July of this fateful year.

The interesting point here is the reason for the renovation of the Naryshkin estate which is located close to the headquarters of the FSB intelligence agency. The building is to be rebuilt into the St Petersburg International Centre for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage.